1. Technical Field
Eco-friendly, or “green,” cleaning wipes are disclosed. The wipe may include a substrate and a green concentrated aqueous cleaning composition impregnated therein. The wipe may be dry to the touch before they are activated by water and applied to inanimate surfaces for cleaning. Because of the green concentrated cleaning composition and water-activation just before application, the disclosed wipes may clean larger surface areas and have longer shelf lives and lower weights for easy transportation, packaging and handling than conventional “wet” wipes that are pre-loaded with a diluted cleaning composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disposable cleaning wipes and pads are known in the art. The wipe generally incorporates a substrate and a cleaning composition into a single article to improve cleaning efficiency and convenience over conventional cleaning products in which the cleaning substrate and cleaning compositions are independently selected and applied to the surface to be cleaned. Thus, cleaning wipes have been widely used in car care, skin care, household cleaning, etc. Besides cleaning, the wipes may also deliver an active, such as a disinfectant or fragrance, to a target surface.
Known disposable cleaning wipes for cleaning hard-surfaces are typically wet and pre-loaded, i.e. impregnated with the cleaning composition without subsequent dilution before the wipes are applied to the target surface. Typically, those compositions include a substantial amount of water. For example, some cleaning compositions impregnated into conventional wipes may include more than 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% or even more than 90% water. As a result of such high water contents, conventional wipes, especially those with substrates including natural or green fibers, tend to have a short shelf life due to the integrity of the fibers being weakened by the prolonged exposure to water.
Another effect of high water contents in conventional wipes is the increased weight, which may adversely affect transportation, handling, packaging and storage of the wipes. For example, some conventional wipes are preloaded with 6-7 grams of aqueous cleaning composition. More importantly, as the relatively dilute cleaning composition depletes, the effectiveness of conventional wipes may decrease rapidly. Therefore, only limited surface areas can be cleaned by a single wipe. For example, a single conventional wipe typically cannot clean an entire bathtub. Thus, regular household cleaning tasks, such as bathtub cleaning, would generally require quite a few conventional wipes, which not only increases the consumption of raw material used to manufacture the wipes but also requires more effort and energy to dispose and recycle the used wipes.
Finally, the high water content in conventional wipes generally necessitate the inclusion of preservatives, which not only increase the manufacturing cost of the wipe but also adversely affect the ecological profile of the wipes because the preservatives are generally synthetic and not derived from natural and renewable sources.
In recent years, there has been a significant amount of global consumer awareness in green, i.e., eco-friendly, household or personal care products. As a result, increasing efforts have been directed to the development of household products with desirable ecological profiles. For example, products containing ingredients that are derived from natural and renewable sources, as well as products that are biodegradable in natural environments, have been a focus of this global “eco-friendly” trend.
Indeed, products derived from renewable resources, such as plants, contribute less greenhouse gas because of their closed CO2 cycle. Specifically, during growth, plants consume the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) as they subsequently release into the atmosphere by biodegradation after use. Therefore, products derived from renewable resources, such as plants, are considered to be “green” and having zero or reduced “carbon footprint” when compared with petrochemical-based products. Common ingredients in household products such as surfactants, fragrances, oils and solvents can be derived directly or indirectly from both renewable sources such as plant materials or non-renewable sources such as petroleum.
In particular, while most surfactants are still derived from petroleum chemicals, surfactants derived from plant-based carbohydrates and oils are becoming available. One suitable renewable raw material for surfactant production is glucose, which is reacted with alcohol to produce alkyl polyglycosides (also known as alkyl polyglucosides). Alkyl polyglycosides have been used in cosmetics products, agricultural formulations and as surfactants in industrial cleaning agents. Alkyl polyglycosides include a hydrophobic (or lipophilic) hydrocarbon chain is formed by a fatty alcohol (e.g., dodecanol, tetradecanol) obtained from a saturated tropical oils such as palm or coconut oil. The hydrophilic part of the molecule, derived from glucose or dextrose, maybe obtained from starch, brown algae, citrus or beet pulp, most commonly from corn.
In addition to its desirable ecological profile, alkyl polyglycosides have good compatibility with the eyes, skin and mucous membranes and even reduce the irritant effects of surfactant combinations. Alkyl polyglycosides are also completely biodegradable, both aerobically and anaerobically.
Some anionic surfactants may also have immediate precursors that are obtainable from natural and renewable sources. For example, long-chain alkyl sulfates may be conveniently prepared from fatty alcohols derived from coconut oils. In particular, sodium coco sulfate (SCS) is derived from pure coconut oil and includes a mixture of sodium alkyl sulfate with the main component being sodium lauryl sulfate. Sodium coco sulfate may be used in a wide variety of consumer products in which viscosity building and foam characteristics are of importance. It can be incorporated into shampoos, hand soaps, bath products, shaving creams and medicated ointments.
Compositions for controlled release of active substances are also known in the art. For example, fragrance or insecticide compositions in the form of single-phase solution have been developed to allow prolonged release of a fragrance or insecticide into the air. However, those compositions generally have a less desirable ecological profile in order to maintain their fragrance or insecticide delivery performance.
Thus, there is a need for a cleaning wipe with more desirable ecological profile and longer shelf live to clean larger surface areas than conventional wipes. Moreover, there is a need for a cleaning wipes with lower water content for easier transportation, packaging, handling, and storage than conventional “wet” wipes that are pre-loaded with a diluted cleaning composition. Finally, there is a need for an eco-friendly wipe impregnated with a cleaning composition with all ingredients derived from natural and renewable sources or having a higher percentage of ingredients that are derived from natural and renewable sources.